Electrically heated garment



C. E. CAIVIIVI.

ELECTRICALLY HEATED GARIVIENT.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 20| |919.

Patented Aug. 12, 1919.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLm E. CAMINI, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TWILLIAM H. TUBVER, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

ELECTRICALLY-HEATED GARMENT.

Application led Hatch 20, 1919.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. CAMM, a citizen of the United States,residing at Salt Lake City, in the county of Salt Lake, State of Utah,have invented new and useful Improvements in Electrically HeatedGarments, of which the following is a speclcaf tion.

This invention relates to electrically h eated garments, blankets, padsandthe 11ke; and an object of the invention is to provide an eflicientand convenient form of such device. There are manv minor objects of theinvention, all of which will be better understood from the detaileddescription follow- In my improved electrically heated device I providean improved form of fabric w1th which the electric resistance wires areinterwoven. This weave I call electro-thermo weave. Furthermore Iprovide a means for controlling the temperature of the garment by meansof a thermostat which is actuated and controlled by the temperature ofthe garment itself-not by the temperature raised by a resistance in thethermostat, but by the temperature raised by the resistance of thewinding in the arment itself; so that the temperature of t e garment isat all times accurately controlled. This thermostat is regulatable; andmay preferably be of the kind and character described in my co-pendingapplication yentitled Thermostat filed on even date herewith, and whichis shown in Fig. of the present drawin These featu-res of the invention,toget er with others, will be readily understood from the followindetailed description of a preferred speci c form of device embodyingthe. invention, reference for this purpose being had to the accompanyingdrawings in y which- V Figure 1 is a view showing a typical form of myelectrically heated garment; Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view illustratingthe electrical connection of the garment; Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectionillustrating a form of weave which may be used in the garment; Fig. 4 isa diagram illustrating how the garment may be made u'p of two pieces ofthe electric woven fabric; and Fig. 5 is a section .showing theconstruction of the thermostat.

In the drawings I illustrate a garment of typical form which is composedof my spel Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 12, 1919.

Serial No. 283,887.

cial weave. Such a garment may of course be made in any form desired; itmay either be 1n the form of a robe or of a blanket; or in the simpleradaptations of my device it may be merely a pad.

The whole garment, or blanket, or pad, is made up of a fabric structurewhich may comprlse the special electric weave as shown at l0, carryingthe electric Wires 11; an outer surfacing fabric 12 to give finish inany desired color and pattern to the garment; and an inner surfacefabric 13 of a suitable kind and texture to form the inner surface ofthe garment which contacts directly with the body. Such inner surfacingmay be made of any sultable material-say of cotton with a fleecysurface. These three fabrics may be elther secured together or they maybe made ent1rely detachable from each other; in fact, a complete garmentor blanket or pad may be made of each one of the fabrics and they mays1mpl fit one over the other without any fastenlng means. Or anysuitable releasable fastening means may be used. The mner and outerfabrics may thus be laundrled at convenience. The weave which containsthe electric windin may be of any sultable kind, the Wires being woveninto the fabric as a weft. Or such a special weave as 1s indicated inFig. 3 may be made. Weft threads of any ordmary kind but preferablyfalrly coarse may be used as indicated at and the' warp 21 may be wovenwith the weft as shown in F ig.. 3, the electric wires 11 being placedin spaced ositions, parallel with the weft, and so hel by the warp as tobe ent1rely covered and protected by the fabric. By weavlng the electricwires with a fairly heavy and pliable fabric the wires them selves areprotected against injury and are also protected against being bentsharply and thus broken. The fairly heavy fabric, although it isflexible, will not bend sharply across the weft, which is preferablyheavy and yet flexible.

The electric wires being a part of the weft, are carried back and forthin zigzag fashion across the fabric, the resistance Wire in a piece offabric being thus endless. This is indicated in Figs. 2 and 4. In Fig. 4I illustrate how a garment may be made up of two pieces of such afabric, the lower or body piece B having the weft running horizontally,the warp running vertically; While the piece C which forms the neck,shoulders and sleeve of such a garment, has the warp running lengthwiseof the sleeve and the weft running transversely thereon. The piece C maybe cut at 30 and a neck hole cut out at 55.

Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically the electrical connection of such garment.For the purpose of the diagram I illustrate a simple form of blanketwith its one continuous electric winding 11. A wire 31 leads from oneend of this winding, and a wire 32 leads from the other end of thewinding, while a wire 33 leads from a central point on the winding. Thewire 33 leads.t0 a thermostat 34 which may be placed in a. pocket 35 inthe garment, the pocket holding the thermostat close to the electricfabric. This pocket may be formed on the electric fabric 10 itself,inside the outer facing fabric 12, or it may be formed in the innerlining fabric. The thermostat is thus directly subjected to the heat ofthe garment; and it is the heat of this garment that causes it tooperate to control the electric circuit. The thermostat itself is shownin Fig. 5 and it may preferably embody a thin, fiatcase 35 having acover 36 on which the thermostatic apparatus is mounted. Thisthermostatic apparatus embodiesfa bi-metallic thermostat bar 37 rigidlymounted at one end on the case cover and carrying at its other end acontact 38 adapted to engage with an adjustable contact 39 mounted onthe end of an adjusting screw 40 which is mounted in the cover 36. Thisadjusting screw 40 has a thumb nut or other adjusting means at 41 on itsouter end and carries a pointer 42 adapted to travel over the outer faceof the cover. Suitable indication marks may be made on the cover so asto locate the pointer for any particular adjustment of contact 39. Byturning the adjusting screw the contact 39 may be adjusted so that thecontact 38 will be raised off contact 39 at a low or medium or high or very high heat. Thus the thermostat controls the electrical circuit inaccordance with the -heat of the garment. The resistance of element 37is low so that it is not heated by the electric current passing throughit.

The Wire 33 is led into the thermostat' as hereinbefore stated, andanother wire 43 leads out from the thermostat. All three wires 31, 32and 43 lead to a three-way switch 44 which is connected by wires 45 withany suitable source of current. Threeway switch 44 may be of anyordinary kind, such switches being obtainable upon the market; and theirfunction is to throw a current either to wires 31 and 32 (putting thewhole resistance winding in one series circuit) or to wires 31 and 32 onone side of the circuit and wire 43 on the other side of the circuit(putting the two halves into the resistance wire in parallel with eachother) or to wires 31 and 43 or 32 and 43, (using only one half of thewinding). In either of the tWo last stated electrical connections (whichare the ones which give medium and high heat) the thermostat 34 is incircuit. It is the function of the thermostat to prevent the temperaturegoing above a predetermined degree; to prevent the garment from becomingtoo hot. From the foregoing description it will be readily understoodhow the thermostat accomplishes this function.

With the garment I may also supply boots which are illustrateddiagrammatically at 50 in Fig. 2. These boots may be made of the sameelectric weave as hereinbefore described, with the suitable lining andfacing, as desired; and they may be detachably connected to the body ofthe garment through the medium of detachable electric connectorsillustrated at 51. In order to supply current to the boots I maypreferably run a Wire 52 from a point on the winding of the body ofthegarment, which point is removed from the end of the winding by about thesame length of resistance Wire as is contained in the boots. This wire52 runs to one of the electrical connectors 51 and then a wire 53extends between the two electrical connectors and another wire 54extends from the last mentioned connector to the wire 32. It will beseen that the boots are thus arranged in parallel with a section of theresistance wire of the body of the garment. The boots may be detached orattached without having to operate any switch to open or close acircuit; and the boots may or may not be used, just as is desired.

A garment of any character, constructed in accordance with thisinvention, has durability and strength. However, it is easilyconstructed, as the wire is woven into the fabric when the fabric ismade, and no special means or arrangement is necessary for holding thewire in place. Either insulated or bare wire may be used because thewire may be woven into the fabric in such a manner as to embed itentirely in the woven fabric. The weaving vof the wire into the fabriccauses it to be thoroughly protected against kinking or stretching orbreaking, and causes it to be permanently anchored into place withoutliability of displacement. All of, these things cause even distributionof heat to cause long life and non-liability to burning out of the wireor injury of the garment.

The garment may be easily cleaned, as hereinbefore stated. In fact, thegarment may be cleaned asa whole without injuring the electric wiring.Very many other advantages of this method of wiring are apparent tothose using it and need not be specifically mentioned here.

Having described a preferred form of my invention, I claim:

1. In an electrically heated garment orv the like, a resistance winding,circuit connectionsone to each end of the winding and one to anintermediate point, a three wa switch adapted to throw current througthe whole winding in series or through either of its halves or throughboth halves in multiple; and a thermostat connected into theintermediate circuit connection and located adjacent the garment to beactuated by the heat thereof.

2. In an electrically heated garment or the like a garment body providedwith a resistance Winding, boots .also provided with a resistancewinding, circuit connections leading to the garment winding, and circuitconnections for the boots connecting them in parallel with a lower partof the garment winding next to the boots.

3. In an electrically heated garment or the like a garment body providedwith a resistance winding, boots also provided with a resistancewinding, circuit connections leading to the garment winding, and circuitconnections for the boots connecting them in series with each other andtogether in parallel with a lower art of the garment winding next to theoots; the resistance in the boot circuit being substantially equal tothe resistance in the parallel part of the garment circuit.

4. In an electrically heated garment or the like, a resistance windingcircuit connections to each end of the winding and one to anintermediate point, a three way switch adapted to throw current throughthe whole winding in series or through lts halves; a manual y adjustablethermostat connected into the intermediate circuit, a pocket in thegarment for holding the thermostat, said thermostat when placed in saidpocket being actuated by the heat of the garment, and the thermostatbeing manually adjustable, so that the action of the thermostat may bemanually controlled to control the temperature of the garment.

In witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my namethis 4th day of March, 1919.

CHARLES E. CAMM.

Witnesses:

Mrs. T. M. OLIVER, L. E. CLUrr.

